EAST Lancashire coronavirus cases have soared after nearly 16,000 positive cases have been missed in daily figures.

Burnley has now seen 1,518 cases positive cases of the virus as it is currently the worst hit area in Lancashire.

Blackburn with Darwen has now reported 2,938 positive cases whilst Rossendale has now seen 810 infections.

Pendle has recorded over 1,611 cases whilst the Ribble Valley has reported 442 positive tests.

The UK has now seen over 500,000 cases of coronavirus after an admin error saw nearly 16,000 cases go unrecorded last week.

Manchester has now become the Covid hotspot which now has a rate of 495.6 cases per 100,000 population for the week ending on October 1.

The delay in the announcement has led to a delay in close contacts being identified and asked to self isolate.

Interim Chief Executive, PHE, Michael Brodie said:" A technical issue was identified overnight on Friday 2 October in the data load process that transfers COVID-19 positive lab results into reporting dashboards.

"After rapid investigation, we have identified that 15,841 cases between 25 September and 2 October were not included in the reported daily COVID-19 cases. The majority of these cases occurred in most recent days.

"Every one of these cases received their COVID-19 test result as normal and all those who tested positive who were advised to self-isolate.

"NHS Test and Trace and PHE have worked to quickly resolve the issue and transferred all outstanding cases immediately into the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing system and I would like to thank contact tracing and health protection colleagues for their additional efforts over the weekend.

"We fully understand the concern this may cause and further robust measures have been put in place as a result."

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey was unable to say how many close contacts of coronavirus cases were not contacted because of a technical glitch.